The Michican Court of Appeals demonstrated what can happen when courts are required to follow the exact letter of the law. (Link via Rammer.)

Since the state’s most serious sex offense – Criminal Sexual Conduct I (CSC I) — is defined as “sexual penetration [that] occurs under circumstances involving the commission of any other felony.” Under such a definition, a married man who gave his Oxycontin to a waitress in exchange for consensual sex can be punished by life in prison.

While some Michican jurists believe the Court of Appeals was merely “taking a jab” at the state’s Supreme Court, which had previously instructed lower courts to follow legislation as written, others believe the problem is likely to give rise to prosecutorial abuse. In this particular case, for instance, prosecutors wanted to increase the man’s jail time and therefore charged him under the obscure provision.

Will it stand? Possibly, if the state Attorney General’s office indifference to the situation is any indication.

A spokesman for the attoney general, who publicly admitted to adultery in November, declined to say whether they would press for legislative amendments to make it clear that only violent felonies involving an unwilling victim could trigger a first-degree CSC charge.

“This is so bizarre that it doesn’t even merit a response,” Rusty Hill said. (Emphasis mine.)

Really? Gee, if I were that state’s A.G., I’d start sweating bullets right about now.

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